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"The Wisdom of Solomon." Sophia Salomontos

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THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON.' BY MONCURE D. CONWAY. THE Wisdom of Solomon'^ probably appeared not far from the first year of our era. It is written in almost classical Greek, is full of striking and poetic interpretations and spiritualisations of Jewish legends, and transfused with a piety at once warm and mys- tical. Solomon is summoned much in the way that the "Wander- ing Jew," Ahasuerus, is called up in Shelley's "Prometheus," yet not quite allegorically, to testify concerning the Past, and concern- ing the mysteries of the invisible world. He has left behind his secularist Proverbs and his worldly wisdom ; but though he now rises as a prophet of other worldliness, not a word is uttered incon- sistent with his having been a saint from the beginning, albeit "chastised" and "proved." In fact he gives his spiritual auto- biography, which is that of a Son of God wise and " undefiled* from childhood. His burden is to warn the kings and judges of the world of the blessedness that awaits the righteous, —the misery that awaits the unrighteous, —beyond the grave. The work impresses me as having been written by one who had long been an enthusiastic Solomonist, but who had been spirit- ually revolutionised by attaining the new belief of immortality. It does not appear as if the apparition of Solomon was to this writer a simple imagination. Solomon seems to be alive, or rather as if " never dead. For thou (God) hast power of life and death : thou leadest to the gates of hell, and bringest up again." "The giving heed unto her (Wisdom's) laws is the assurance of incorruption and incorruption maketh us near unto God : therefore the desire of Wisdom bringeth to a Kingdom." The Jewish people idealised Solomon's reign long before they idealised the man himself ; and indeed he had to reach his halo 1 Sophia Solomontos. ... a 22 1 THE OPEN COURT. under personified epithets derived from his fame, —as " Melchize- dek," and "Prince of Peace." The nation sighed for the restora- tion of his splendid empire, but could not describe their Coming Man as a returning Solomon, because the priests and prophets, — gentry little respected by the Wise Man, —steadily ascribed all the national misfortunes to the shrines built to other deities than Jah- veh by the royal Citizen of the World. Thus grew such prophetic indirections as "the House of David," "Jesse's branch," and finally " Son of David." But this idea of the returning hero does not appear to have been original with any Semitic people ; it is first found among them in the Oriental book of Job, who longs to sleep in some cav- ern for ages, then reappear, and, even if his flesh were shrivelled, find that his good name was vindicated (xiv.). This idea of the Sleeping Hero (which is traced in many examples in my work on The Wandering Jew) appears to have gained its earliest expression in the legend of King Yima, in Persia, —the original of such sleep- ers as Barbarossa and King Arthur, as well as of the legendary Enoch, Moses, and Elias, who were to precede or attend the re- vived Son of David. Solomon, whose name probably gave Jerusa- lem the peaceful half of its name {Salem) would no doubt have been central among the "Undying Ones " had it not been for the Parlia- ment of Religions he set up in that city. But he had to wait a thousand years for his honorable fame to awaken. In the Wisdom of Solomon the Queen of Sheba is also recalled into life. She is, as Renan pointed out, transfigured in the personi- fied Wisdom, and her gifts become mystical. "All good things together came to me with her, and Wisdom goeth before them : and I knew not that she was the mother of them." She is amiable, beautiful, and gave him his knowledge : "All such things as are secret or manifest, them I knew. For Wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me : for in her is an understanding spirit, holy, one only, manifold; subtle, lively, clear, undtfiled, plain, not subject to hurt, loving the thing that is good, quick, which cannot be letted, ready to do good, kind to man, steadfast, sure, free from care, having all power, overseeing all things, and pervading all intellectual, pure, and most subtle spirits. For Wisdom is more moving than motion itself ; she passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness. For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty : therefore can no impure thing fall into her. For she is the brightness of the everlasting "THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON." 23 light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness. And alone, she can do all things ; herself unchanged, she maketh all things new ; and in all ages, entering into holy souls, she maketh them intimates of God, and prophets. For God loveth only him who dwelleth with Wisdom. She is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of stars ; compared with the light she is found before it, —for after light cometh night, but evil shall not prevail against Wisdom." (vii. 21-30.) In Sophia Solomofitos Solomon relates his espousal of Wisdom, who sat beside the throne of God (ix. 4). But there remains with God a detective Wisdom called the Holy Spirit. Wisdom and the Holy Spirit have different functions. "Thy counsel who hath known except thou give Wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from above?" This verse (ix. 17) is followed by two chapters (x., xi.) relating the work of Wisdom through past ages as a Saviour. But then comes an account of the severe chastening functions of the Holy Spirit. "For thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things (i. e., nothing is concealed from her), therefore chastenest thou them by little and little that offend," etc. (xii. i, 2.) There is here a slight variation in the historic development of the Spirit of God, and one so pregnant with results that it may be well to refer to some of the earlier Hebrew conceptions. The Spirit of God described in Genesis i. 2, as "brooding" over the waters was evidently meant to represent a detached agent of the Deity. The legend is obviously related to that of the dove going forth over the waters of the deluge. The dove probably acquired its symbol- ical character as a messenger between earth and heaven from the marvellous powers of the carrier pigeon—powers well known in an- cient Egypt— it also appears that its cooing was believed to be an echo on earth of the voice of God.^ We have already seen (viii.) that Wisdom, when first personified, was identified with this "brooding" spirit over the surface of the waters, and also that in a second (Jahvist) personification she is a severe and reproving agent. But in the second verse of Genesis there is a darkness on the abyss, and both darkness and abyss were personified. In the rigid development of monotheism all of these beings were necessa- rily regarded as agents of Jahveh— monopolist of all powers. We thus find such accounts as that in i Samuel 16, where the Spirit of Jahveh departed from Saul and an evil Spirit from Jahveh troubled him. Although the Spirit of God was generally supposed to convey IBath Kol, —"daughter of a voice." : 24 THE OPEN COURT. miraculous knowledge, especially of future events, and superior skill, it is not, I believe, in any book earlier than Sophia Solomontos definitely ascribed the function of a detective. There is in Eccle- siastes (x. 20) a passage which suggests the carrier: "Curse not the King, no, not in thy thought; and curse not the rich even in thy bedchamber ; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."^ This was evidently in the mind of the writer of Sophia Solomontos in the following verses "Wisdom is a loving Spirit, and will not (cannot) acquit a blasphemer of his words : for God is a witness of his reins, and a true beholder of his heart, and a heaver of his tongue ; for the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world, and that which contameth all things hath knowledge of the voice; therefore he that speaketh un- righteous things cannot be hid, neither shall vengeance when it punisheth, pass by him. For inquisition shall be made into the counsels of the ungodly: the sound of his words shall come unto the Lord for the disclosure of his wickedness, the ear of jealousy heareth all things, and the sound even of murmurings is not se- cret." Here we have the origin of the " unpardonable sin." The Holy Spirit detects and informs, Jahveh avenges, and if the offence is blasphemy Wisdom, the Saviour, cannot acquit (as the "Loving Spirit" of God it is for her ultra vires). This detective holy spirit appears to be an evolution from both Wisdom and Satan the Ac- cuser, in Job a son of God. By associating with Solomon on earth, Wisdom was without the severe holiness essential to Jahvist con- ceptions of divine government ; in other words, personified Wis- dom, whose "delight was with the sons of men" (Prov. viii. 31) was too humanised to fulfil the conditions necessary for upholding the temple at a time when penal sanctions were withdrawn from the priesthood. A celestial spy was needed, and also an uncom- fortable Sheol, if the ancient ordinances and sacrifices were to be preserved at all under the rule of Roman liberty, and amid the cos- mopolitan conditions prevailing at Jerusalem, and still more at Alexandria.^ IThis may, however, have been flotsam from the Orient.
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